I won’t lie. These shorts sat in an unfinished pile of doom for a long time. I had started making them last summer, prior to holidays at Aireys, but didn’t follow the instructions, stuffed up the front panel, stretched out the waistband and then got grumpy and put them away.
A little while ago I finally got the nerve to unpick them and inspect the damage. Turned out the waistband was salvageable with some careful re-pinning and slow stitching and I just needed to cut a new piece of facing for the front section and the damage could be fixed. Not so hard.
Buttonholes on the other hand…I have a beautiful old singer machine, courtesy girlprinter’s mum, but no buttonhole attachment = world of pain. And these shorts have two layers of almost-denim. In black. My eyes, my eyes!! Also, after 8 buttonholes I basically wanted to stab someone.
But they’ve done the trick this summer. Comfy and they fit reasonably well. The pattern is this one from Thread Den, for the second time. This one fits better than the last. But even though denim was a recommended fabric choice, I don’t think I’ll make them again and especially not in a heavy weight of fabric – it’s too many layers around the tummy. Underneath that front panel, the two sides of the waist meet and button, so there’s three layers with buttons right in the front of the pants.
Say hello to Tosca, who helped! In addition to the aforementioned Singer and the lovely Tosca, Girlprinter gets credit for the lovely sunny spot, these photos and my knitting skills, among other things.
Manas 
I love that these emerged from the unfinished pile of doom – they look great & Tosca is adorable 😉